North Jersey advocates will be among hundreds gathering this weekend to organize a national boycott in which immigrants would skip a day of work and school on May 1 to show their impact on the U.S. workforce and economy.

The day, billed as "Un Dia Sin Inmigrantes" or "A Day Without Immigrants," will be the first boycott held before a planned seven-day strike toward the end of the year, organizers said. The announcement by Movimiento Cosecha, a grassroots movement planning the boycotts, comes two weeks after President Donald Trump signed executive orders to build a wall and add 5,000 patrol agents to curb illegal immigration, as well as strip federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities that limit their involvement with immigration enforcement.

Days later, Trump signed a sweeping order that temporarily banned people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days and indefinitely blocked Syrians from the country. That order has been temporarily suspended while an appeals court weighs whether it will lift the ban.

"We are switching the conversation from "Are immigrants wanted?" to "Are immigrants needed?" said Maria Fernanda Cabello, a spokeswoman for Movimiento Cosecha, in a statement. "We cannot live like this anymore, and the immigrant community is ready to show this country what would happen without us."

Around 400 immigrant workers, parents, youth and advocates will be gathering in Boston for three days this weekend to plan the boycott and participate in protests in that city, organizers said.

Carlos Rojas Rodriguez, a volunteer from New Jersey, said he expects several residents from the Garden State to participate in the weekend planning.

The aim of the boycott, which is planned for International Labor Day, is to gain "permanent protection'' for immigrants living in the country illegally, organizers said.

It will be the second time since 2006 that immigrant advocates plan such a walkout. On May 1, 2006, a one-day boycott of schools and businesses took place throughout the country and led to several protests.

Juan Pablo Orjuela, who grew up in Lodi and is one of the volunteer organizers, said that recent protests throughout the nation, such as the Women's March on Washington and the impromptu protests at airports after the travel ban took effect, make him believe that the 2017 boycotts will be successful.

"Things are so extreme now so it's bringing out people, so we are hopeful that people will come out,'' he said. "But we know that we want to keep this energy going, so we have to keep working on it."

Brenda Valladares, of Paterson, participated in the 2006 protests and is now one of the volunteer organizers of this year's boycott. She said that in 2006 the people who participated felt very much like many immigrants today.

"Everyone felt very threatened, much like people feel now, and people had a reaction to that threat, and it spread like wildfire,'' she said, remembering that she missed school that day to march at Union Square in New York. "There wasn’t any structure behind it, but Cosecha has learned a lesson from that and to look at the power that people can have."

New Jersey is home to a diverse population, with more than one in five residents being foreign-born, and half of those being naturalized U.S. citizens, according to a report by the American Immigration Council. The Garden State is also home to approximately 500,000 people who don't have legal resident status, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The forced removal of immigrants living in the country illegally would cause New Jersey to lose $25.9 billion in annual economic activity, according to a report by New Jersey Policy Perspective.